Sleepless Nights
by Monroe-Militia
Summary: Charlie is working for the rebels and poses as a prostitute in order to get into bed with the leader of the Monroe Republic's son. If she can get close to Monroe's son, then maybe she can get close to whatever he's planning as well. But when Connor starts to fall for her she has more to worry about than just getting caught. Will she be able to prevent falling for him? Slight AU
1. Chapter 1

"Absolutely not," Miles told his niece in a stern tone.

"Charlie, don't." Rachel added just as sternly before her voice cracked a little. "_Please_ don't."

"Come on, this chance isn't just going to present itself again," Charlie pointed out. "It's a good plan. When else are we going to get a chance to get into Monroe's headquarters to try and figure out what he's planning and take him down from the inside?"

"If you get caught, you'll be dead," Rachel pointed out. "And that's if you're lucky."

"…I'll do it," Nora piped up.

"You have a tattoo of an American flag," Charlie pointed out. "That's a dead give-away that you're a rebel… I can do it. I'll be fine… Really."

"I am not going to let my daughter go hand herself over as whore to Monroe's son," Rachel argued. "You don't have to do this, Charlie."

"It's not your choice to let me or not," Charlie responded. "And I do have to. Whatever Monroe's planning isn't good. And if sleeping with his son means that we might be able to stop him and save who knows how many lives then it's worth it."

Rachel looked sick as she told her daughter, "At least be careful."

"I will be," Charlie responded. She knew that the words were empty, but figured they might be enough to at least comfort her mother a little.

"If you're going in there, then you're going to need something else to wear," Nora pointed out. "You are way too covered to fit in inside a whore house."

Charlie knew that Nora was probably right and looked around to search for a solution. She noticed that a couple of the workers were outside, leaning against the building and chatting.

"I have an idea," she said before turning and walking over to the two women.

"How much for your dress?" She questioned one of them.

"Honey, clothes ain't what I'm selling," the prostitute responded, causing the other to start snickering.

"Is this enough?" Charlie asked insistently.

The whore looked like she had been about to roll her eyes when she spotted the handful of diamonds that Charlie was offering over to her and hesitated.

"And you can have my clothes," Charlie added hopefully.

* * *

A few minutes later, Charlie stood in front of the entrance to the whorehouse dressed in a skimpy dress and heels that she could barely walk in.

"Your mom is right you know," Nora told her. "You don't have to do this."

The others didn't want to blow Charlie's cover, so they were already getting ready to go back to rebel headquarters. That meant it was just her and Nora.

"Yes. I do." Charlie said seriously before she managed to crack the slightest of smiles. "But at least he's cute, right? I mean, as cute as an evil dictator's son can really be…"

Nora smiled back at her. "Good luck."

"I'll be fine," Charlie insisted one more time before she took in a deep breath and stepped inside.

She immediately spotted him, standing by the bar with a drink in his hand and a grin on his lips. He was utterly surrounded by girls. He must be a hot commodity. Monroe's son probably paid a lot better than any of them were used to getting.

Charlie still had no idea how exactly she was going to convince him to take her home, even if she could get to him, so she decided to head over to the opposite side of the bar first to get a drink as she tried to get her nerve up and figure out what she was going to do.

When she'd finished her drink she decided that, plan or not, she still needed to act now. She couldn't go back and tell everyone that she had let him walk out with someone else without even trying.

She turned to get off of her stool and found herself staring into the eyes of Connor Monroe himself. He was already walking her way with a tilted smile on his lips.

He sat down beside her and then grinned as many of the women glared over at her, already jealous of the tiny bit of attention she was getting.

"All the other girls in here are throwing themselves at me," he commented. "But not you… Why?"

Great, she'd already blown her cover. A+ job, Charlie…

"I'm new here," she told him, struggling to hold on to any chance of remaining undercover. "I'm not used to all of the competition."

"Hmmm, I bet you're not," he agreed, looking her up and down ever so slowly with a smile still tugging at his lips. His eyes remained on her chest where the dress dipped down low in the front for several long seconds before they finally flicked back up to meet her eyes.

Okay, maybe her cover was still intact…

"And I'm sure that you're more than used to all of this fighting over you," Charlie told him in her most flirtatious tone as she placed her elbow on the bar-top and moved to lean her head on her hand, letting her chest stick forward a little more than usual. "Especially with a face like that."

The corner of her lip twitched upwards when he immediately took the bait and looked back down at her cleavage again.

She knew by his inability to think of a response that she had him drawn in and it was time to kick things up a notch. She leaned over, splitting the distance between them in half as one hand moved to his bicep.

His gaze turned to her hand on his arm and her lips were hovering just inches away from his as she added on, "Especially with a body like that…"

As her hot breath hit his lips, his eyes flickered back up to hers.

"I'm Charlie, by the way," she told him with a seductive smile as her hand slid down from his arm to his inner thigh.

"Well, Charlie," he said with a wide smirk. "What do you say we get out of here?"

"I'd love to."

* * *

Charlie had to suppress a grin when, not too long afterwards, she was being led through the front entrance of Monroe's headquarters and straight past the armed guards.

Once they had gotten inside and a little down the hallway, Connor looked back over his shoulder at her, blatantly staring at her in a way that would usually cause her to hand out a few good death threats. But not this time, instead she shot him her flirtiest smile.

It must have worked because he stopped and turned to stare at her with his undivided attention.

She took the opportunity to close the distance between them, pulling him closer by the collar of his shirt until her lips were on his. One of her hands tangled into the curls of his hair as the other still rested on his chest.

He pulled her closer to him with one warm hand on her hip and the other on the small of her back. As the kiss deepened, his second hand slid down to grab her backside.

She forced out a small giggle of surprise against his lips in response. She could feel him pressing against her upper thigh through his pants, so she slid her hand ever so slowly down from his chest to grab him through the fabric.

As he let out a moan against her lips she thought to herself that this was almost too easy.

He reluctantly pulled away from her to continue leading her down the hallway and Charlie silently cursed at herself for jinxing things when she noticed the pair of guards at the end of the hall, one of whom was smirking over at them.

He led her around a turn and as she looked down the other hallways she discovered that there were guards everywhere.

When they reached Connor's room a pair of guards was stationed outside the door. If the place was this protected where she'd seen, then she couldn't imagine how difficult it was going to be trying to get into Monroe's office.

She had definitely jinxed herself by thinking this was easy.

As Connor pulled her through the door and towards him, she forced any thoughts of trying to get into that office out of her mind as she forced her whole concentration back onto Connor and making him happy enough that he'd want to keep her around for a while.

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! :) I hope you guys liked the chapter. This idea just came to me today and I couldn't get rid of it.  
**


	2. Chapter 2

When Charlie woke up the next morning, she found that Connor was already awake and sitting up. She wasn't exactly sure what the protocol here was, but she figured just getting dressed and leaving would be a safe bet.

…There was only one problem with that. Connor had ripped her dress in half the night before. She had nothing to wear out of here and she was sure that her mom and Miles would flip if she came back without a scrap of clothing on.

"I have to go," she said as she rolled on her side to face him. "And something tells me that dress is no longer wearable."

"Well then maybe you should just stay here and wear nothing," he suggested with a grin.

"Cute, but we both know that you have more important things to do with your day," she pointed out with a teasing smile. "You won't even notice that I'm gone until tonight... And I could be tempted to come back. For a price."

Connor let out a small laugh at that.

"You should definitely come back," he told her.

"You'd have to find me something to wear on the way out first," she teased. "I'm sure that somewhere in this place there's a spare set of clothes."

She knew that ordering him around could end up being a bad choice, but she thought that she could afford to push her luck a little.

"I guess it is my responsibility to go find you a dress," he commented. "Since I'm the one who wrecked the first one… I'll be back in a second."

He got up and pulled on the bare minimum amount of clothing before leaving the room.

Charlie let her head fall back onto the pillow as she silently hoped that he really would come back with clothes instead of just leaving her there all day.

She decided that there were better uses of her time unsupervised in his room, so she sat up and eyed the rest of the room. She quickly scanned to see if anything popped out at her as possibly being important, but all that she saw was a whole lot of nothing. That wasn't overly surprising… Why would he leave anything important in here if he was going to have total strangers spend the night?

She was about to get up to search a little more thoroughly when the sound of the door opening caused her head to whip around.

Connor tossed a new dress, at least as revealing as the one that she had shown up in the night before, and a pouch of diamonds over to her before he turned towards his dresser to go grab some clothes without a glance back at her.

* * *

"You are _not_ going back there," Rachel insisted.

"I have to," Charlie argued.

"You said yourself that there were guards everywhere," Rachel pointed out. "Even if you could take a few of them out, new ones would hear you and come to take their place. How do you think that you're going to get anywhere near something important?"

"I'll figure it out," her daughter responded angrily. "I've gotten closer than anybody else has. And if I go back then I can get more information to use to plan out how I'm going to do it."

Nora walked in the room then and Charlie tossed the pouch that Connor had given her over.

"Here, some new funding," Charlie told her. "Courtesy of mini Monroe."

Nora opened the pouch and looked inside, seeming impressed. "You must have given him quite the night."

Charlie let out a laugh before she asked, "Could you imagine the look on Monroe's face if he found out that his son was inadvertently funding the rebellion?"

"It's not funny, Charlie," Rachel argued. "If Monroe finds out, he'll make an example out of you."

"Well then I guess that it's a good thing that he isn't going to find out," Charlie told her.

"Did you find anything out?" Nora questioned.

"Not yet," Charlie responded. "I'm going back tonight though."

"Have I mentioned that I hate this plan lately?" Danny questioned. "Seriously, I stay home for one night and you start whoring yourself out to a Monroe."

"You've already complained about this four hundred times in the last ten minutes," his sister replied. "And I'm still not changing my mind about this. I didn't screw him last night so that I could back out now."

* * *

When Charlie returned to Monroe's headquarters, the guards immediately let her through and each one that she passed told her which way to turn to get to Connor's room. It was an advantage to be able to get past some of the guards, but she wasn't sure how she felt about them giving her directions. It was going to be hard to wander off anywhere else.

Connor wasn't back yet when Charlie entered his room, so she decided to take the chance to rummage through his stuff a little.

As she searched through things, she was careful that she didn't move them too far. She listened carefully for the sound of footsteps outside the door and made sure that at any given point that she wouldn't have too many things out of place to fix. She needed be able to put everything back in place before he could get through the door.

She managed to check the whole room to no avail. She'd been expecting this result, but still had figured that it was worth a try to check.

Connor still wasn't back, so Charlie took a seat on his bed to wait. As she did, she considered what she should do when he came in to try and keep her cover.

By the time that the door actually moved, Charlie had settled on the one-liner, 'See, it's like I never even left', but she didn't get the chance to say it.

She only managed to get a word or two out before Connor had already closed the distance between them, wasting no time before kissing her hard.

She supposed that she shouldn't really be surprised. After all, he wasn't paying her for talk.

* * *

**A/N: please read and review! A special thanks goes out to Sexy Meat Pies, bbp23, and Loveforthestory for reviewing the first chapter :)**


	3. Chapter 3

Charlie had spent every night with Connor for the last week, but she still didn't have any idea of how she was going to get into Monroe's office. She had, however, overheard a couple of guards gossiping and found out that Monroe had left and taken a couple of his best men with him on some important trip. That didn't sound good and she knew that she needed to figure out some sort of plan by the time that he got back, unless she wanted it to already be too late.

"I feel sorry for you," Nora commented as she and Charlie lounged around in rebel headquarters. "…Having to sleep with mini Monroe, especially when he thinks you're a whore… I mean it's got to be all about him, right?"

"I so don't want to hear about this," Danny complained as he got up and left the room, taking Miles' precious whiskey with him.

Nora snickered a little as she watched him go.

Once it was just the two of them, Charlie asked her, "Can we not call him mini Monroe?"

"Mini Monroe was your nickname for him, remember?" The older woman pointed out.

"Yeah, but now it grosses me out," Charlie responded. "I prefer not to think about the fact that he's related to Monroe when I'm sleeping with him."

"I could understand that," Nora agreed. "But you still haven't answered me. It's all about him in the bedroom, isn't it?"

"He's not that bad… I mean maybe it was all about him the first couple of nights, but now I've got him wrapped around my finger," Charlie responded.

"Are you kidding me?" Nora questioned. "Okay, but he still must suck in bed... He must have like no practice actually trying to pleasure someone else, right? And even if he has had practice, it must have been with whores who would tell him he was amazing no matter what, right?"

Charlie let out a small laugh, "Well, actually…"

"Seriously? How in the hell did you end up getting paid to get good sex?" Nora demanded. "I mean I know it's with an evil dictator's son, so that's kind of a drag, but you said it yourself that he's pretty cute."

"It's not like I'm only there to sleep with him," Charlie pointed out. "I still have to figure out how the hell I'm going to get near anything important."

"Yeah, and I'm sure that you aren't even enjoying yourself a little bit in the meantime," Nora retorted sarcastically.

* * *

As soon as Connor walked into his room, Charlie headed towards him to take charge from the start.

A grin formed on his lips at the sight of her. But as he opened his mouth to speak, he instead found her tongue in his mouth.

As they kissed, she dragged him over to the bed and then pushed him back onto it.

"Someone's eager," he commented with a grin as she crawled onto the bed and began to kiss at his neck.

She let out a small laugh against his skin before ripping the front of his shirt open, sending buttons flying everywhere.

"I know that it's my responsibility to find you a new shirt, since I wrecked this one," Charlie purred in his ear. "But I like you so much better out of it."

"Well then maybe I shouldn't have gotten you that dress," Connor told her. He let out a chuckle as he grabbed her by the hips and rolled them over. "Since I certainly prefer you out of it."

Charlie smirked a little before bringing her lips back to his and rolling them over again so that she was back on top, sitting on his chest to keep him from trying that again.

As she grabbed his hands and pinned them above his head, he grinned up at her and commented, "You're something else, Charlie."

Most girls would never risk trying to take charge with him. Usually he would hate it, but there was something about the way that Charlie did it that he couldn't resist.

"But in all the best ways, right?" She asked in her most flirtatious tone. "…You know you love it."

With that she brought her lips back down to meet his.

A few minutes later, when she came up for air, Connor told her, "You know, you're completely ruining other girls for me."

"Good," she told him with a wide grin.

* * *

Charlie had stayed there overnight each time so far, but she couldn't quite make herself do it this time… He just looked so innocent and vulnerable as he slept and it was making the guilt that much worse.

In normal life, she definitely didn't sleep around. She'd never slept with a guy right off the bat like this before. She'd always been overly cautious and had gotten to know guys well before jumping into bed with them.

Sex meant something to her, but she was pushing that aside for this whole mission. At first it hadn't been that hard because she had known that it meant nothing to him. But now it seemed like Connor was starting to get attached and, although she knew that it was a good thing as far as the mission went, that didn't help get rid of the pit of guilt in her gut.

She had been lying awake for what felt like hours on end when she finally slipped carefully from the bed and pulled her dress back on before tiptoeing towards the doorway, carrying her shoes with her so that they wouldn't make any noise.

As she walked down the halls and out of the front door, she ignored the looks from all of the guards that she passed. She had become more than used to the walk of shame during the last week, although she was used to doing it in the morning instead of the dead of night.

* * *

By the time that she got back to rebel headquarters, everyone was already off to bed. She crept carefully down the hallways and towards her room.

She couldn't stand the idea of waking anyone up right now and having to deal with their questions about what she was doing back already.

She turned into her room and crawled into her own bed, which had remained untouched for days, to try to get some sleep. Despite her best efforts, sleep didn't come until almost the crack of dawn.

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! Also a huge thanks goes out to these incredible people for reviewing the second chapter: Sexy Meat Pies, bbp23, and Loveforthestory :) **


	4. Chapter 4

Luckily for Charlie, no one in rebel headquarters seemed to have noticed that she had come back early the night before. Or if they did, they at least didn't mention it to her which was a relief within itself.

Unfortunately, when it came time for her nightly visit to Connor, Charlie was still exhausted and sleep-deprived from the night before.

Once again, Charlie found herself alone in Connor's room as she waited for him to get back.

This time she decided to lie down as she waited, figuring that she may as well make herself comfortable as she waited.

Connor was later than usual and after an hour of waiting for him, Charlie drifted off to sleep.

* * *

By the time that Connor finally headed back to his room, he was beyond exhausted from the long day he'd had. As he walked through the hallways, he wondered to himself whether Charlie would be back again or not.

She had disappeared in the middle of the night before and he had woken up to find her missing for the first time since he had met her. He wasn't sure of why she had snuck out or what it had meant, but he did know that he had been surprisingly disappointed to find that she was gone.

As Connor walked through the doorway of his room, he smiled to himself at what he found.

There she was, lying curled up on top of the covers and fast asleep. He must really be back late then.

Connor approached the bed slowly, trying to remain as quiet as possible, before stopping next to Charlie, who had goose bumps standing out on the flesh of her arms.

He brushed a loose strand of hair that had fallen over her face out of the way before he carefully bent down to lift her up, being careful not to wake her as he did so.

Once she was in his arms, he shifted so that he held her against his chest with one arm as his other pulled the covers back. He then gently placed her back down on the bed, setting her head down on the pillow, before pulling the covers back up to tuck her in.

He walked around the bed and sat down on the other side, then kicked his shoes off before reaching to unfasten the buttons on his shirt.

Once he had stripped off enough clothes to be suitably dressed for sleeping, Connor pressed his lips to Charlie's forehead before crawling into bed to get some much needed sleep himself.

* * *

When Charlie woke up the next morning, she was first surprised to find that she had fallen asleep while waiting. Next, she was surprised when she realized that it was already light out. That meant that it was morning and Connor must have already come back.

Charlie blinked a few times to try and wake up a little more before she moved to sit up, only to find a whole new set of surprises.

Connor was nowhere to be seen, but she now realized that she was under the covers which she was certain she had been waiting lying on top of.

Charlie looked down at the bed in confusion and that's when she spotted it out of the corner of her eye.

There, sitting on top of Connor's pillow, was a folded up piece of paper that was being held down by two pouches of diamonds.

Charlie understood that one of them was for the night that she had left while he was asleep without having been paid yet. What she didn't understand was why she seemed to be getting paid for falling asleep. She also didn't particularly understand why Connor hadn't just woke her up when he had gotten back.

She slowly moved the pouches out of the way before hesitantly picking up the piece of paper. She was dreading finding out what was written on it.

_You were asleep when I got here and looked like you could use the rest. I didn't want to wake you. See you tonight._

Charlie felt a surge of anger as she balled her hand into a fist, crumpling the note within it.

This was not how things were supposed to go... Charlie was supposed to be just a whore to Connor, nothing more… He wasn't supposed to be letting her sleep or tucking her in or leaving her notes on his pillow when she was still sleeping as he left.

Why did he have to make everything so much more complicated for her? She already had enough to worry about without this.

* * *

"Here's the pay for the last couple of nights," Charlie commented as she handed the pouches of diamonds over to Nora.

Nora could sense that there was something off with the other woman, but she couldn't put her finger on what exactly that something was.

"You alright, Charlie?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Charlie told her.

"Are you sure?" Nora checked.

"Positive," Charlie lied.

* * *

Charlie felt an ever-growing pit of dread in her gut as she waited in Connor's room.

This time, she didn't have to wait long, since he arrived at the door mere minutes after she had.

She definitely was not in any mood for talking, so she decided to try and prevent any attempts on his behalf by sliding her dress off of her shoulders and letting it fall to the floor.

It wasn't anything that Connor hadn't seen before, yet a huge grin still formed on his lips as she did so.

Charlie closed the distance between them and wrapped her arms around his neck as she brought her lips to his, mostly just so that she wouldn't have to see him looking at her like that anymore. Charlie's guilt was at an all-time high, but she had a job to do and she couldn't let that show.

Connor grabbed her by the legs to lift her up and Charlie's legs instinctively wrapped around his waist. She forced herself to smile against his lips at that as she tightened her arms around him even further, pulling herself as close to him as possible.

* * *

"Where are you going?" Connor questioned as Charlie got out of bed.

Charlie forced herself to smile over at him as she teased, "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"You should stay over tonight," he commented as he watched her grab her clothes up off of the floor. "I missed you the other night."

"You were asleep when I left," Charlie pointed out as she got began to get dressed. "You didn't even notice that I was gone until morning."

"I like waking up with you here," he admitted with a gut-wrenching smile.

"I'm not your girlfriend, Connor," Charlie insisted while keeping her tone as playful as possible. She knew she was walking a very thin line here. "And I don't do the girlfriend experience. My job here's done for the night."

She saw his face fall and quickly turned away. That was something she couldn't stand to watch right then, so instead she just headed for the door without waiting for his response.

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! A giant thanks goes out micha, bbp23, Loveforthestory, rita, and Procrastinatinggenius for leaving reviews on last chapter! :)  
**


	5. Chapter 5

Charlie had a lot less luck trying to hide the fact that she was back early this time. The time before, she'd at least come back in the middle of the night when everyone was sleeping. This time she had come back much earlier and only a few people had gone to bed for the night.

The instant that Charlie walked inside, Nora spotted her and the look on her face.

"What happened? Are you okay?" Nora asked as she rose to her feet and headed towards where the other girl was standing.

"Charlie? What the hell are you doing back here this early?" Miles questioned as he walked into the room.

Great. An audience. That was just what Charlie needed at that moment.

"I came home to sleep in my own bed," Charlie answered, trying to dodge their questions. "Is that a problem?"

"I thought that mini Monroe liked you sleeping over," Miles commented, shifting a little on his feet as if he wasn't entirely comfortable talking about Charlie's undercover sex life with her. "He didn't find out that you're a rebel, did he?"

"Don't call him mini Monroe," Charlie told him. "And don't you think that if he found out that I would have led with that information? I just couldn't make myself sleep over there anymore."

"Why not? Did something happen?" Nora asked.

"No... Maybe," Charlie admitted. "I think he's falling for me."

"Isn't that sort of the point of this whole thing?" Miles questioned. "Convincing Monroe's son to fall for you so that you can try and get access to his office and information? Wasn't that your idea, Charlie?"

"He was supposed to keep me around for sex," Charlie retorted. "He wasn't supposed to fall for me. There weren't supposed to be any feelings involved. That's why I told him that I wasn't going to pretend to be his girlfriend and came home early because-"

"Hold on. You what?" Miles cut her off mid rant. "You actually told him that you weren't going to act like his girlfriend?"

Charlie nodded her head sheepishly.

"Christ, Charlie. You have got to be kidding me," Miles commented, pinching the bridge of his nose as he struggled to think of any kind of solution. "What did you say to him? Exact words?"

"He was trying to convince me to sleep over," Charlie started a little nervously as she tried to remember how exactly she had worded it. "And then I said that I wasn't his girlfriend, that I don't do the girlfriend experience, and that my job was done for the night."

"And what did he say?" Miles questioned.

"Nothing. I just said it and left," Charlie admitted.

"At least she said that her job was done for the night and not forever," Nora piped up.

"It would have been a hell of a lot better if she'd just kept him happy and let him get even more comfortable around her," Miles pointed out before turning back to face his niece. "What's the point in volunteering to sleep with a Monroe if you're just going to try and blow things as soon as you get the chance to try and earn mini Monroe's trust?"

Charlie didn't try to correct him on the mini Monroe comment that time. Her uncle was already angry enough and she knew that he was right. She hadn't volunteered for this to back out now, but that wasn't what she was proposing.

"I don't know if I can pretend to have feelings for him without _actually_ developing feelings for him," Charlie admitted before clenching her eyes shut.

There. She'd said it. The thing she was so damn afraid of.

When it was silent for several long seconds, Charlie finally peeked an eye open to look over at her uncle. He looked less angry now and more exasperated instead.

"Look, Charlie," he told her, his voice coming out a lot less harsh. "I wish that we could put your feelings ahead of everything else, I really do. But this is more important than trying to keep you from getting your feelings hurt or your heart broken. If we don't figure out what Monroe's up to, then a lot of people's lives are at risk."

"I know. You're right," Charlie admitted, swiping a traitorous tear from her cheek.

She hated that her anger was hooked up to her tear ducts. At least she'd managed to keep from crying in front of Connor when she'd gotten mad. That would not have gone well if she'd turned into a crying mess.

Miles let out a sigh. Almost all the progress that she'd made had been destroyed and now they were going to have to do a lot of back-tracking.

"Do you think he'll let you go back again?" Miles asked. "Or do you think he'll be too pissed that you turned him down?"

Charlie thought back to the night that he'd come to his room especially late as she told her uncle, "He'll let me back."

"Are you sure?" He asked, wanting to be extra cautious that Charlie wasn't going to go walk herself straight into danger.

"One night I fell asleep on top of the covers waiting for him and, not only did he let me sleep because apparently I 'looked like I could use the rest', I woke up tucked in to find that he'd left a note that said that he'd left so that I wouldn't wonder where he was and worry," Charlie pointed out. "And he still paid me. So, yeah. I'm pretty sure he'll still let me come back."

"Wait, you never told me about that," Nora commented.

She'd grown used to getting updates on Charlie's visits to Connor. They weren't necessarily detailed, but still. She was surprised that Charlie had never mentioned the note to her before.

"You can't just go running back there tonight. You're going to have to be a little subtle about it, okay?" Miles questioned. "Let him think that he won you over as his fake girlfriend. But, whatever you do, don't let him know that you just changed your mind right back. He might get suspicious and we don't need you getting caught."

"I'll be fine," Charlie insisted.

* * *

The next night, Charlie's nerves were getting the better of her. She was possibly the most nervous she'd been yet about her nightly visits to Connor as she tried to decide what to wear that would make him most likely to forget how she'd started leaving earlier and earlier the last few nights.

Finally, she decided on the dress that he'd brought to her that first morning. Maybe it was a little obvious, but she figured that it would show him that she still had the dress he'd given her. And she could use anything that could help her try to become the exact thing she'd told him she never would be the night before. After all, it was going to be a little complicated trying to not be too obvious while trying to switch her opinion on the subject completely, quite literally, overnight.

* * *

She was back a little late, but Charlie thought that might be for the best if it meant that she wouldn't have to wait as long in his bedroom.

She knew that there was no information in there already. He didn't keep anything important in his room, unless you counted expensive scotch and clothes. Somehow she didn't think that was the kind of thing that she could bring back to rebel headquarters without getting yelled at for potentially blowing her cover.

There was nothing to do in his room to distract herself as she waited. The waiting was always the part that made her the most nervous, so she was filled with a mixture of relief and dread when she walked into Connor's room to find that he was already back with a glass of scotch in hand.

So that was his alternative to her after a long day. At least he hadn't gone out and found himself another girl. That would have been a bit of a difficult situation. It turned out that having him unusually attached to her for someone who he pays to sleep with him did have its perks.

His back was to her as he took a swig out of his glass. She wasn't sure of what exactly to do as she took a few steps into the room. During her nights with him, Charlie had mostly figured out how to act around him.

She hadn't exactly grown comfortable around him. She wasn't sure that was the right word when she was still wracked with nerves and guilt. But, still. She had learned how to be around him and she hadn't felt this unsure in his presence since the first or second night.

She was about to say something to make sure that he knew she was there, although she figured that the sound of the heavy door shutting must have tipped him off to that, when he turned his head to look at her over his shoulder.

"I wasn't sure you'd come back," he commented before turning away again and pouring himself another glass.

"Why? Just because I slept in a different bed last night?" She questioned in a tone that she really hoped came off as playfully teasing and not just obnoxious and harsh.

"Do you want a drink?" He offered.

One drink couldn't hurt. If anything it might just calm her damn nerves down.

"Yes," she told him. As an afterthought she added on quietly, "Thanks."

He poured another glass and turned to hand it to her, finally staying facing her.

"I like the dress," he commented as his eyes raked over her. It was clear that he remembered where she'd gotten it from.

He held his own drink in his hand, but had yet to take a sip since refilling it. For a split second, the fact that this was President Monroe's son she was dealing with crossed Charlie's mind and she considered the possibility that he could have poisoned the drink. He could just be waiting for her to drink it so that he could get his revenge at her for daring to think herself too good for him.

But, no. This was Connor. And even though she was nervous that he was probably still mad at her, she didn't think that the same guy who had told her that she was ruining other girls for him as he looked at her with the most innocent face would also poison expensive scotch just so that he could watch her die.

Charlie smiled at him, then took a swig of her drink. She was fairly sure that there was nothing in it. Besides, she had already asked for it and had been acting suspiciously enough. Even if she had really been concerned about the possibility of him slipping something in the drink, she still couldn't really get away with not trying it.

Connor watched her for a minute before downing his own glass in one swig.

"Thirsty?" She asked in an amused tone.

"Wouldn't want to keep you waiting," he told her. "You've made it pretty clear that you're only here to get your job done, nothing else."

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! A super huge thanks goes out to Loveforthestory and Bellabear9898 for reviewing last chapter! :)  
**


	6. Chapter 6

Charlie was relieved when Connor's after-glow left him a lot less cold and distant than he had been when she had first arrived. Although, with how rigid he had been when she had first arrived, it was no wonder that sex had made him loosen up a little.

She'd done her best job to leave him extra happy in the hopes that he would warm up to her a little again. She thought that her efforts must have paid off, at least a little bit.

Or at least it seemed that way when, after she didn't get back up right away, he curiously asked, "What happened to just doing your job then leaving? ...Not that I'm complaining."

Charlie struggled to reach a non-suspicious balance in her tone as she teased, "Don't get too excited, it's just a bed. It's not like we're getting married… I'm just tired."

He didn't seem too offended by that answer as he rolled onto his side to face her. "Can I ask you a question?"

"I can't stop you from asking anything," she pointed out as she turned her head to look over at him. "But I might actually answer it, depending on how personal it is."

Connor stared over at her as he seemed to debate with himself for a minute about whether or not to ask. She tried to wait, but her curiosity got the better of her.

"What?" She asked him. "Didn't you have a question?"

He did, he just wasn't entirely sure whether he wanted to know the answer or not.

Finally, he asked her, "Do you like me at all? …Or is this all just an act?"

Charlie could feel her stomach drop at the mention of it being an act and alarm bells went off in her head once again. She silently hoped that he didn't notice that as she forced a playful smile onto her lips.

"Cute… Good in bed… Pays well... You're right. I can't stand you," she teased him. "Now let me sleep before I change my mind about staying here tonight."

Connor watched her for a moment longer before resting his head back on his pillow and shutting his eyes.

* * *

"She's not back yet," Nora pointed out to Miles. "That's got to be a good sign, right?"

He was clearly worried and dealing with it in his typical Miles fashion, by drinking and pretending that there was nothing bothering him any more than usual, but Nora knew better. She could see it in his lounged posture, which was just a little too rigid to be considered casual, as he watched the people around him. He was clearly trying to pass it off as if he was sitting there to people-watch, rather than because of the spot's the close proximity to the doors, but she wasn't fooled by him.

He glanced up at her before focusing back on the other rebels and finally responding, "Could be a good sign… Or it could be a very bad one."

"You think he knows what she's there for?" Nora questioned.

Miles ran his fingers through his hair, tugging on it more than he was actually combing it, as he answered, "I don't know. I'd guess that, if we're lucky, then he's just pissed and not suspicious. But I don't know the kid. He showed up after I'd already left."

Nora frowned. "I guess we'd just better hope that he isn't as paranoid as Monroe then."

* * *

Charlie woke up the next morning to find Connor still asleep. That raised a small problem.

She couldn't leave while he was sleeping, that much had become abundantly clear. Waking him up to leave seemed like just as bad of an option, but she didn't think him waking up to her watching him would help her cover any further.

Finally, she settled on lying back and pretending to be asleep as she tried to plan out what she was going to do when he woke up. She debated with herself whether she would be better off pretending to still be asleep until he was gone or trying to risk the increasingly tricky task of attempting to flirt with him without acting too suspiciously.

She had settled on pretending to be asleep unless he tried to wake her up, since it seemed like the safer option for the time being, when he finally woke up and her decision turned out to be pointless anyways.

Charlie's curiosity got the best of her within five seconds of him starting to shift on the other side of the bed. She had only intended to take a quick peek at what he was doing and to try to judge his mood, but instead she wound up caught off guard when he was staring straight back into her eyes. Her heart began to thump embarrassingly loudly in her chest, preparing for fight or flight, as she stared back at him with wide eyes that she was certain had to be giving up that she hadn't really been asleep.

"How long have you been watching me like that?" She asked in a tone that sounded nervous to her ears.

He watched her in silence for a few more nerve-wracking moments before he finally responded, "Five seconds. Maybe."

Charlie found herself feeling in a strange position of complete uncertainty. She plastered on a teasing smile that she silently hoped reached her eyes as she told him, "You scared the hell out of me."

"You're not used to sharing beds, are you?" He asked in a light tone that stood out starkly against the weight the question held in Charlie's mind.

For a split second she debated telling him that she had been lying to him from the start in order to try to save her own ass or trying to pass off another lie as being her true reason for being there, but she quickly shook both of those ideas off.

"Most of my clients aren't looking for anything beyond sex," she told him instead. "Plus they don't tend to have beds worth staying in."

Charlie felt a sickening wave of relief wash over her as his face contorted into a pained expression for just a split second before he forced it back into something closer to indifference.

The mention of other guys and implication that a comfy bed was the only thing that made him stand out made him stop asking questions pretty quickly. The fact that the mention of those things could be an even further back-track was nowhere in Charlie's mind in that moment though. Instead, she found herself regretting her answer, however necessary it may have been, for a whole other reason as the pillow-talk effectively ended and he moved to get out of bed.

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! Another huge thanks goes out to Sexy Meat Pies, Daniella T, and Bellabear for reviewing last chapter! :D**


	7. Chapter 7

Connor already had Charlie on the bed, half-undressed under him, when he took her by surprise by removing his lips from her neck to look down at her as he asked, "How many?"

"What?" She asked as her brain tried to catch up to what was going on.

"How many other clients do you have?" He clarified.

She ran her fingers through his curls and smirked up at him as she questioned, "Is that really what you want to talk about right now?"

She had been hoping that would be the end of the conversation as she moved to wrap her arms around his neck in an attempt to pull him down towards her, but he didn't budge. He kept his body hovering over hers and his weight on his forearms, resting on either side of her, as he told her, "I want to know."

"With a client like you, who needs more than one?" She teased.

"You know, this seems an awful lot like the girlfriend experience to me," He told her. His lips twitched up into an arrogant smirk before he added, "Staying over regularly... Not sleeping with anyone else... Taking all my money-"

That caught her off-guard and she let out a heavy laugh. It wasn't a fake little giggle that she had forced out at something in order to try to feed his ego, but a genuine mouth wide open laugh. She quickly moved a hand up to cover her mouth, since she knew that it wasn't attractive. He didn't seem to mind though as he reacted with a beaming smile that formed on his lips.

When she managed to get herself under control again, she told him, "You're right. I should be charging you extra."

"Name the price," he said, then brought his lips to kiss along her jaw. "Whatever you want."

"However much you think I'm worth," Charlie teased.

"If I had to pay you what I thought you were worth, I wouldn't have been able to afford you that first night," he insisted.

"I thought you were rich," she commented as she draped a leg over him, letting her foot slowly drag along his calf as she did so.

"I am," he responded. "But even I don't have that kind of money."

Charlie wrapped her arms tighter around him and pulled him down to meet her lips.

* * *

"You look like you're in a good mood," Nora commented as Charlie walked back into the rebel headquarters. "That mean you're in good with Connor again?"

Charlie smiled over at her mysteriously and told her, "Maybe."

"Good. You should enjoy it while you can, instead of spending your time worrying about when it'll end," Nora insisted.

"Easier said than done," Charlie pointed out.

"I know," the older woman responded. "I started dating Miles while he was still in the militia, remember?"

* * *

That night, Charlie was getting ready to go back to see Connor when Nora appeared in the doorway and caught her staring into the mirror.

As soon as she noticed the reflection of the other woman standing behind her, Charlie turned around and faced her friend as she asked, "Is it bad that I'm starting to get weirdly comfortable in these tiny dresses?"

Nora let out a laugh at that and shook her head. "No. I don't see anything wrong with that. You look good. You've got a boy you like fawning all over you. You should feel good about it."

"If only it was that easy," Charlie countered.

"Hey, you only have to worry about Monroe when you're showing up and leaving," Nora pointed out. "Somehow I don't think the secret to getting at anything important is going to show up in his son's bedroom. That means it's more fun than mission, right?"

Charlie knew that, even if that was true, it wouldn't last for long and that she should be hoping to successfully complete her mission as soon as possible, yet she couldn't quite make herself feel that way.

* * *

Even as his fake girlfriend, Charlie was still a little weary. Sure, she was enjoying herself and spending the night like he liked, but she still had one rule left to try to keep herself from getting even more crushed when she would have to betray him. She slept in the same bed as him, but she never let herself cuddle up to him at night.

"How in the hell did I get lucky enough to get you?" Connor questioned one morning as he grinned down at her.

"Hmm, I think it might have had something to do with the money," she teased.

"Really?" He questioned in a tone of mock surprise before he ducked his head down to sneak in a morning kiss. "I never would have guessed."

* * *

Charlie was walking through the hallways on her way out, barely able to hold back a dopey grin, when she suddenly came tumbling down from cloud nine head-first and right back into reality at the sound of a voice around the corner.

"-rebels won't know what hit them."

She froze like a kid caught with their hand in the cookie jar as the source of the sound turned the corner. It was President Monroe, back from his trip and talking to one of his men. This could not be good. How had she so stupidly missed her chance to get into his office while he wasn't there? Maybe there hadn't been any opportunities, but she had known that it wouldn't be easy and she would only had a limited amount of time. She should have made her own opportunity while she had still had time.

Monroe's eyes barely glazed over her, which was probably an advantage, considering the way that she was standing there blatantly staring at him. He was probably used to that though as the president of the republic and he didn't have time to be bothered with the mysterious prostitute standing in his way, so he was already past her by the time that she managed to compose herself and keep walking.

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! Another huge thanks goes out to Loveforthestory and Bellabear for reviewing last chapter! :D  
**


	8. Chapter 8

"I'm sick of being left behind while you go on important missions," Connor complained.

"Too bad," Monroe told him unsympathetically. "I need you here to keep an eye on things where I know you're safe."

"Safe?" Connor scoffed. "I thought I was supposed to be a member of this militia. I thought I was supposed to take it over some day. How the hell am I supposed to do that when you won't let me do a damn thing because it's all 'too risky'? Shouldn't you be preparing me to be your successor instead of keeping me locked up in here?"

"I promised your mother that I would keep you safe," Monroe argued in an exasperated tone. His eyes shot his son a pleading look, which only succeeded at pissing the younger man off even more. "There is plenty for you to do and learn here and here is where you're staying. That's final."

"What about what you promised me?" Connor snapped. "You told me you would give me everything, but you won't even trust me with the slightest bit of power."

"Connor!"

As Connor stormed out of his father's office, Monroe called after him. The younger man didn't slow though and instead slammed the door on his way out to emphasize his exit.

* * *

Charlie could tell that Connor was not in a good mood from the moment he walked through the door. His shoulders were stiff, his body was rigid, and his features were all unusually cold. Her first reaction almost caused her to strike a fight pose, lest he have figured anything out about the reason behind her being there, but she quickly stopped herself and decided to let things play out a little first.

He began to grumble to himself as he tore the buttons of his jacket open, fumbling with them a little as he rushed with one hand. He still hadn't so much as glanced in her direction since walking through the door.

Charlie unfolded her legs from beneath her and rose from the bed to slowly walk towards him. Something was clearly upsetting him more than a little and she found herself feeling more concerned about him than she was about her own safety. This couldn't be about her, she thought, since he wasn't directing any of his anger towards her. Still, she found herself wanting to get to the bottom of it and help get rid of whatever was clearly weighing on him.

She walked around him to be standing chest to chest, then gently pushed his hands aside and slowly began to unbutton the last two buttons on his jacket for him, one after the other, as her eyes studied his expression.

He was clearly still annoyed, but at least he stopped grumbling and stilled as he looked back down at her with slightly calmer features.

She pushed the jacket off of his shoulders, letting it fall to the floor in a heap, but made no move to remove her hands from his chest. She inched a little closer and they were nearly touching as she glanced curiously up at him and opened her mouth to ask him what was wrong. Her words were abruptly cut off before they had even left her lips as he quickly took a step back, tearing himself from her grip.

* * *

He should have kissed her. Any other night he would have been all over her, but now he could hardly concentrate enough to look at her.

He'd been waiting for his father to come back with the imbecilic hope that he would finally get what he was promised. He had gone through training. He was supposed to be the next president. He wanted to get out there and do something. He wanted to help make decisions. He wanted his uniform to be more than just for show. And like an idiot, he had actually believed his father when he had claimed that they'd discuss it after he got back.

Oh, they'd discussed it alright, but it hadn't gotten Connor any further than it always did and he was getting more than a little sick of it.

He ran a hand over his face and let out a deep exhale before turning to pour himself a drink. He didn't offer her one and she didn't ask. Instead, she watched as he downed it in one swig before he finally settled on the edge of the bed.

She sat down beside him, as close as she could, and ran her hand through the side of his hair. He glanced over as if somehow just noticing she was there and then finally commented, "My dad's a dick."

* * *

Charlie wasn't sorry to hear those words escape his lips. In fact, she was quite pleased to hear that he didn't look up to his father like some kind of hero that he couldn't wait to become just like. She kept her composure though and carefully chose her next words so that they wouldn't come off as too curious, but would still lead to a chance for more information on Monroe's situation, hopefully without gathering any suspicion about her own.

She crawled onto his lap and wrapped one arm around his neck as her other hand gently tugged on his hair in order to direct his gaze up to her own. "Do you want to talk about it?"

* * *

He had this beautiful girl in his room, one of the only good things he had going for him since he had moved into Monroe's mansion of over-powering fatherly control, and he couldn't even concentrate on her for long enough to give her the attention she truly deserved. Instead, he was letting his dad win and dwelling on all of the problems that he had planned on coming back to his room to escape.

Connor's hands moved to her hips and he slid her closer to him as his lips found their way to her neck. She could feel his teeth graze her flesh with the kisses and less than enthusiastically realized that he was probably marking her as his own. Still, she would take a couple of hickeys over a militia branding any day.

His lips trailed up her jaw line, then he stopped to murmur in her ear, "No, I don't want to talk. I want you to distract me."

* * *

"Don't you have to go?" Charlie questioned when Connor was acting particularly frisky the next morning.

He mumbled out an answer that came out completely incoherent against her skin.

"You're telling me that the president's son doesn't have anything better to do with his morning?" She challenged.

He smirked up at her. "I don't know, you are pretty good."

She rolled her eyes a little and let out a laugh. "I meant something more important."

"I'm just in the militia to sit around and look pretty," he informed her with a smile that didn't sit quite right. "What does it matter if I show up a little late?"

"I thought looking pretty was my job," she taunted with a wide grin.

Charlie practically jumped in surprise when the door flew open. She suddenly became very aware of just how much of her body was on display. Connor was covering her up much more than any of the bedding was. She had to fight her first instinct to cover herself more with her arms or the sheets. She was supposed to be perfectly comfortable with men seeing her like this. Even if that man happened to be President Monroe, who was standing over the bed and gave her a quick once over before focusing his attention over onto Connor.

Connor, on the other hand, seemed more than relaxed as he glanced back over his shoulder as if he hadn't just been caught naked by his father.

"Get dressed," Monroe ordered. "You want to do more, then fine. Be ready in five minutes."

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! Another gigantic thanks goes out to Sexy Meat Pies and Bellabear for being awesome and reviewing last chapter! :D**


	9. Chapter 9

Connor stepped into his father's office and for once he stood at attention instead of sitting down and making himself at home. He didn't want to screw things up if his father was actually going to let him do something.

"There are rumours going around about a rebel base nearby," Monroe told him, getting straight to business. "This morning we got evidence to confirm it. A couple men spotted a few rebels out in the woods." His teeth gritted as he added, "Unfortunately, those men were too incompetent to capture them for questioning. One is dead and the other will be too soon, if he doesn't get his act together. You'd think he was working for the Patriots the way he let them escape."

"Where exactly do I come in?" Connor questioned when his father paused for a moment.

"I need someone I can trust in charge," Monroe responded. "I want you to take a group of men to search the area and figure out where the hell these Rebels are set up."

"And what if I find their base?" Connor asked.

"_When_ you find it, don't engage," his father told him. "Don't let them know you found them. Instead, bring your men back and tell me where they are." A sadistic smile spread across his lips as he added, "I have plans for how to wipe them out."

* * *

"_You want to do more."_ That was what had Monroe had said.

Charlie had been operating under the idiotic idea that Connor was only in the militia because Monroe was his father and that had decided matters for him. Clearly, she had gotten too close and let it cloud her vision. It shouldn't have surprised her that he wanted to be more involved in the militia. After all, he was heir to the throne, whether he got along with his father or not.

She had been stupid to assume that, just because he wanted to stay with her instead of go to work in the morning, he didn't really want to be a part of the militia. He could want to stay in bed with her for longer, regardless of his job satisfaction.

* * *

Connor heard a twig snap nearby and reached for his gun, in case the source was a rebel instead of one of his men, but before he had the chance to turn around someone had already grabbed him from behind. He jerked his head backwards and managed to hit his captor in the chin hard enough to knock the assailant back. The hold on Connor was released, but it didn't matter.

Another man had already emerged from the trees and had his gun pointed at Connor's head.

"Looks like it's our lucky day, Bruce," the man commented. "We didn't just find us a soldier. This here is Sebastian Monroe's son."

* * *

Miles was starting to get more than a little impatient as he waited for his niece to return. She was later than usual and all kinds of scenarios were running through his mind. Now that Monroe was back had he somehow figured out who she was? Had she decided to try something stupid and gotten herself killed? Had mini Monroe decided against letting her leave?

His head whipped up as a door opened, but he was not happy with what he saw. A couple of rebels whose names he hadn't bothered to learn were dragging a curly-haired militia member between them, each pulling the man by one arm. The soldier's hands were cuffed together in front of him, but his eyes were completely uncovered and he was clearly already surveying the inside of the building.

"Look at what we found out in the woods," one of them commented proudly.

"Tell me that isn't who I think it is," Miles pleaded.

"President Monroe's one and only son," the other boasted. "That makes him pretty valuable."

Miles ran a hand over his face in exasperation. How could he be working with such idiots?

"Wipe that stupid look off your face. How long do you think it is before Monroe comes looking for him?" He demanded. "It's only a matter of time until he finds us here and then we're all dead."

"So we trade him," the rebel responded with a shrug.

"You don't get it," Miles insisted. "You led his son here. You're letting him take a look around. If we send him back, we send back all the information you two idiots let him find out. There was already a plan in place that dealt with him and you two morons completely ruined it. We don't have leverage here. You just screwed us."

He had thought keeping Charlie's mission on a need-to-know basis had been the best idea. That way, if someone got captured they wouldn't be able to expose what Charlie was up to and get her killed. Clearly that had backfired.

Shit, Charlie still wasn't back yet. Why the hell wasn't she back if the Monroe kid had already been gone for long enough to get himself captured?

"Well don't just stand there," he barked out. "Get him in a cell."

Charlie stepped into the rebel base, apparently expecting Nora or her uncle to be waiting for her, as she complained, "I don't know how much longer my feet can take wearing heels every day."

Connor, who hadn't visibly reacted to a word since he had shown up, whipped his head around at the sound of her familiar voice. Once she noticed him there, Charlie froze a few steps inside the doorway. He held her wide-eyed gaze with a cold glare as his jaw visibly clenched.

Could they possibly have messed things up any worse? Now Monroe's kid not only knew where their base was, but even if they somehow managed to move somewhere else and get rid of him he still had seen Charlie there. Just fucking perfect.

"Get him out of here," Miles grunted out angrily.

Charlie ripped her eyes from Connor's then and turned towards her uncle to demand, "What is he doing here?"

She watched the pair of rebels drag Connor out of the room as he continued to glare her down. There went all of her hard work at getting him to trust her. How the hell had everything gone so wrong overnight?

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! Another giant thanks goes out to psuku for being great and reviewing last chapter! :)**


	10. Chapter 10

"I want to talk to him," Charlie insisted.

"Absolutely not," Miles told her.

"But-"

"This is not up for debate," her uncle argued. "Enough damage has already been done."

"He already saw me," Charlie pointed out. "He knows I'm working with the rebels. It's not like there's anything left for him to figure out. I can help."

"I said no," Miles growled out.

He was more short-tempered than usual and Charlie knew that was not going to end well, especially for their latest prisoner.

"What are you going to do?" She asked in a voice that cracked just slightly.

Miles frowned. He knew that she wasn't going to like it, but he was hoping that the logical part of her would realize that it was the only real option he had.

"I've got to interrogate him," he responded in a pleading tone. "It's the only chance we have of getting anything useful out of him."

"And then what?" Charlie demanded.

"We can't send him back," he pointed out.

"Why not?"

"You know we can't," Miles argued. "They led him straight to our base without even a blindfold on. He knows I'm here. He's seen you here. We send him back and Monroe sends men who outnumber us and out-arm us here before we even have time to grab our crap and run."

"So let me talk to him," Charlie protested.

"No, Charlie!" Miles snapped. He stopped and cleared his throat before he more calmly told her, "We've been over this. You've been compromised. You are not going in there."

"I can make him trust me," she pointed out. "Or at least I can try. He's more likely to talk to me than anyone else here."

"I don't just mean your cover's compromised," Miles responded. "I don't need whatever feelings you have for him clouding your judgement and I'm not going to let you do something stupid and get yourself injured or him free."

"You don't trust me," she accused.

"I'm not willing to risk you," Miles corrected. "Not like this. I'm drawing the line. Now go put some real clothes on."

As he turned to leave the room, she called out after him, "He's in handcuffs. How is that a risk?"

* * *

Connor let out a laugh as the man from the doorway let himself into his cage. He was sitting in the back corner of his cell with his knees up and his head against the wall.

"Let me guess," he commented. "You're here to play bad cop and then you're going to send Charlie, if that's even her name, in to play good cop get answers."

"No," Miles responded bluntly. "There is no good cop and Charlie's not coming anywhere near you."

"It's a little late for that," Connor responded. "And clearly you've got your bad cop routine down to a tee. Well, excuse me for not quivering in my boots, but if you don't mind I'm just going to nap through the rest of your act."

He shut his eyes, but a small smirk crept onto his lips. Sure, it had been a slap in the face to find out that Charlie was working for the rebels, but he wasn't going to show it. He had the upper hand here and Miles had fully admitted it when he had first arrived. Besides, it wasn't like he had any information to give even if he was interrogated.

* * *

"I know that Miles sent you to babysit me," Charlie pointed out. She wasn't stupid. She knew that Nora wasn't just there to check on her and enjoy her company. The other woman had popped up mere minutes after Charlie had sat down on her bed and had not left her side since. "He thinks I'm going to let Connor out."

"I'm sure he doesn't think that," Nora told her. "He just doesn't want you there while he figures out what to do now that we have him locked in a cage."

"He's already decided," Charlie countered. "He decided the instant I walked through the door. He's going get whatever information he can out of Connor and then he's going to kill him and I don't get a say in the matter." Nora said nothing, but at least she didn't deny it. "I know Connor better than he does. I should be the one to talk to him."

"You really think that you can get him to tell you something?" Nora questioned.

"I don't know," Charlie admitted. "But I need to see him."

"I'll give you five minutes," her friend told her. "But you'd better use it wisely. There's no way you're going to get near him again."

* * *

Charlie stepped in the cage to find Connor sitting in the back corner of his cell with his knees up and the back of his head resting against the wall. He'd been there for less than half a day and already his face was bloodied and bruised. She tried not to dwell on what role her uncle may have played in that.

"What a surprise," Connor commented in a monotone voice as Nora shut the door behind Charlie. "Good cop is here."

She hesitated in the doorway for a moment, surprised by how cold he had become. She hadn't been expecting him to be happy to see her, but she had been expecting to be able to read him, at least a little. Instead, he was a completely closed book behind all that anger and she had no way of knowing what he felt for her underneath the sting of betrayal.

Nora's warning popped into Charlie's head and she realized she didn't have any time to waste standing there frozen, staring at him. She crossed the room quickly and crouched down beside him as she stuck a hand out to try to brush his hair out of the way to assess how deep a cut on his forehead was, but he quickly pulled away with a grunted out, "Don't touch me."

Charlie dropped her hand to her side and a frown crossed her features, but she didn't move away.

"I'm not going to tell you anything," he insisted. His eyes focused behind her at the corner of his cell and his voice came out a little quieter as he added, "So you may as well just go."

"I know you have no reason to believe me," she insisted, causing him to let out a huff that implied that was more than just an understatement. "But I didn't want you to get captured. This was never supposed to happen."

His gaze shifted back to her and his features softened as his eyes met hers. "I do believe you." Relief washed over her as a smile formed on her lips, but it was short-lived. "I know you didn't want me to get captured because now you can't convince me that you care about more than what information you can get out of me."

She flinched back from his sharp change in tone and a sinister smirk crossed his features. This was not the Connor she was used to. This was Monroe's son.

Charlie opened her mouth, but someone else's argument drowned hers out.

"What are you doing in here?" Miles demanded as he pushed the door open with a slight screech of metal on metal. "I thought I told you to get dressed."

Charlie rose to her feet and turned around to face her uncle. "Miles."

"Here we go," Connor commented in an unimpressed tone. "Now you're going to try to convince me that she came here of her own accord to help me and I should really trust her because she's willing to go against you. Well, it's not going to work."

Charlie took a step closer to Miles, half-shielding Connor from him.

"I just-"

"Not in here," Miles cut her off when he noticed the smug look on Monroe's kid's face. If they were going to argue about this, then there was no way in hell he was going to do it where the kid could listen in and pick up whatever he wanted in case he happened to get out of there. They were supposed to be getting information out of him, not the other way around.

Miles gestured with his chin towards the door and Charlie obediently followed him out without another word.

* * *

Once they were safely outside and far enough down the hallway, Miles paused and turned around to face Charlie.

"I thought he might talk to me if I was there by myself," Charlie defended herself.

"You're too close to this," Miles told her. "I know that you care about him and I can't risk him getting to you."

"I'm not an idiot, okay. I know what I'm doing," she responded.

He went to argue then shut his mouth and frowned. Hold on a second. She was wearing one of the dresses she wore to visit Connor, but it wasn't the one she had been wearing when she had come back. Was it?

"Did you change into that dress?" He demanded.

"Yes," Charlie told him matter-of-factly, but he cut her off before she could explain.

"Why the hell would you do that?" He growled out.

"Because Connor knows that I'm not really a prostitute, but no one else there does," she argued. "I can still go back one last time. There's no reason I should know Connor is missing. So I pretend I don't, I go back in there, and I find a way to get into that office so this whole thing hasn't been a complete waste of time."

"No." Miles insisted. "Absolutely not. There is no way in hell that you are going back there. It's too dangerous. We don't need to risk you getting captured too."

"But-" Charlie tried to argue.

"No!" Her uncle shouted, then took a breath to calm himself down a little. "I said no. You're not going."

"Fine," she told him in a defeated tone. "Alright. I'll go get changed."

Miles knew that she was still mad, but at least she was agreeing now. He would rather have her pissed than have her caught breaking into Monroe's office, especially right after Monroe's son went missing. Hopefully, she'd see the sense in it later.

* * *

Charlie felt bad going behind her uncle's back, but she couldn't let this opportunity slip away. He'd be thanking her tomorrow morning if all went as planned.

When she got to Monroe's headquarters, she was let inside just as if it were any other night. The guards outside Connor's door watched her go past without a word, but she thought they looked a little on edge. Maybe that was just because she was looking for that though.

It was hard to tell who knew about Connor's disappearance. Maybe he wasn't even expected back yet. Regardless, she was going to have to wait it out if she wanted to make it into Monroe's office. She'd already searched through all of Connor's room thoroughly enough that she doubted there was any chance of her finding something new and useful, so she headed over to the bed, much nicer than her own, and decided to try to get some sleep so that she would be ready when the opportunity arose. And if it didn't, then this time she was just going to have to create it herself.

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! I have quite a bit more of this written now, so hopefully there should be updates coming fairly regularly now. And a huge thanks goes out to Veronica Violet and TheLateNightWriter93 for reviewing last chapter! :)**


	11. Chapter 11

Miles was already fed up enough with how Monroe's kid had practically turned into a freaking mute. Asking questions was getting him nowhere, but it was the only option he could see. He was going to make the kid talk, by any means necessary, because they needed to get something out of this shit show. Maybe if he managed to get something out of all of this Charlie would be a little more understanding. Probably not.

"Trust me, it is not in your best interest to withhold information from me," Miles insisted as he leaned over the prisoner.

* * *

Nothing was in Connor's best interest at this point and he was well aware of it. Even if he had any answers worth giving, it's not like it would matter. They weren't going to strike a deal with him for cooperating. He was the president's son. He knew where their base was. He'd seen their faces. He knew where Miles Matheson was and he knew Charlie had been snooping around undercover. He wasn't making it out of this unless the militia found him before the rebels had the chance to kill him. Best he could hope for was buying himself a little more time with his silence, instead of admitting that his father kept him so out of the loop that he had no information. If they believed that, they'd just dispose of him. Easy as that.

Connor gritted his teeth and gave Miles a defiant glare.

* * *

"Alright then," Miles responded as he pulled a knife out. He hated being this guy. He had thought that he'd left this person behind when he had left Monroe, but unfortunately things had not been quite that simple. Hopefully Charlie wouldn't find out about this.

"Miles!" Came an urgent voice from outside the cell.

Miles' jaw clenched as he slowly turned around to face the woman that had spoken. "What?"

"Charlie's gone," Nora told him.

"What do you mean she's gone?" Miles demanded, his fingers curling into a fist. His knuckles began to turn a bright white as he growled out, "I gave her _one _instruction. Why couldn't she just listen for once?"

In his anger he had forgotten to censor himself in front of Connor, who was eagerly drinking in the drama.

"I wouldn't listen to you either if I was her," Connor pointed out with a shrug. Sure, now the kid's damn voice worked. "From what I've seen you just yell at her."

"Stay out of this!" Miles snapped at him before turning his attention back to Nora. "She's going to get herself killed. I told her not to go back there."

* * *

The smug smirk fell from Connor's lips. Hold on a second. She was going back? Why would she be doing that?

Nora glanced over Miles' shoulder at Connor. Miles seemed to take the hint since, without another word, he put his knife away, raked a hand through his hair, then let himself out of the cell.

Great, they just showed up and dropped that bomb on Connor and now they weren't even going to let him hear what they were going to do about it.

Whatever. He didn't care. It was probably all just an act anyways to get him worried about Charlie. But then how would that really help them any?

* * *

"We have to figure out a plan," Miles insisted as soon as they were a safe distance away from Monroe's kid. "We can't just leave her there. She's set at getting into Monroe's office no matter what. He is going to catch her and he is going to kill her." He ran a hand over his face. "I'm going to have to turn myself in. I don't see another option."

"Hold on. At least wait until tomorrow," Nora told him. "If we do anything now, we're just going to make sure her cover gets blown. Maybe she'll succeed. Or maybe she won't get into the office. Just wait and see if she comes back before you do anything drastic. I don't want anything happening to Charlie, but we can't afford risking her cover and we can't risk giving you back to Monroe either."

Miles didn't like it, but she was right. He was dangerous when he was with Monroe and showing up there would just guarantee her cover would get blown.

* * *

Charlie woke up to find that it was light outside, yet no one had disturbed her. They had to have noticed that Connor hadn't come back yet. Didn't they?

She got up from the bed and headed for the door. Maybe she would be lucky and with Connor gone they wouldn't need guards outside his room. She cracked the door open only to find that was not the case.

Any other day she would have given up and gone home, but she wasn't going to have a cover to try to keep if she didn't find a way to get into that office before she left. It had been risky enough coming here when she knew Connor was missing. If she kept coming back pretending like she expected him to be here, she was bound to raise suspicion.

One of the guards, who she had been staring at since she opened the door, seemed to get annoyed with her attention and for the first time since she had started coming there, he spoke to her. "What do you want?"

"I want to talk to Monroe." She told him firmly.

He let out a laugh at that and his partner's composure cracked slightly.

"I'm serious," Charlie insisted.

"And what exactly do _you _have to talk to the president about?" The man asked as if he were humouring a small child.

"Connor didn't come back last night," she responded.

"I think the president has more to worry about than whether or not Connor showed up to pay you," the guard snorted out.

Charlie narrowed her eyes at him. She hated this. "He said he'd be back tonight. Something tells me Monroe would be worried about his son missing. I want to talk to him."

"Too bad," the guard responded. "You're not wasting his time."

"Don't you think he is going to be upset if he finds out you kept this from him?" Charlie demanded. "Or did he put you outside Connor's door so that you could guard his empty room while he's missing?"

* * *

Nora had taken over watching Connor's cell early in the morning. She had been sitting there, watching him as he didn't move or make a sound, for a few hours when Miles showed up looking disheveled. It was clear he had gotten little to no sleep the night before.

"She's not back yet," he told her. "She's always back by now. I'm going to get her."

If Charlie wasn't back yet, then Connor realized Miles Matheson must be right for the first time that he had ever heard of. He hated that he still cared, but he was worried about Charlie.

"So what exactly is your plan?" Nora questioned. "You're just going to turn back into General Matheson? What makes you think Monroe's even going to give us Charlie back when you go in there and tell him that she's important to you? He's just going to use that against you."

"He's not going to give you Charlie back," Connor insisted, trying to keep his tone indifferent. "And if she's not back, it's because he already figured out that she's one of you. You don't know how paranoid he is."

"Yes, I do," Miles grumbled out as he turned around to glare at the prisoner. "I know him. Better than anyone."

"No. You don't know," Connor argued. "You left before I found out about him and he's gotten a lot more paranoid since then. He doesn't trust anyone." Not even his own son. Even if Connor made it out of this, he was going to be screwed. His dad had finally trusted him to take on more responsibility and he had gotten himself captured immediately. He'd be lucky if his father even trusted him to walk around without armed guards on him at all times.

* * *

Charlie couldn't believe that she had actually succeeded at getting into Monroe's office. She wasn't sure how long it was going to take the guard, who was humouring her only for the sake of saving his own ass, to get Monroe. But for the time, being she was alone in his office.

She waited a few seconds after the guard was gone, then rose from her chair and rushed around the other side of the desk. Great. The drawers were all locked. This wasn't going to be as easy as it had first seemed, but at least if they were locked they probably held something important.

Charlie grabbed a letter-opener off the corner of the desk and got to work on the bottom drawer, where she would hide something if she was going to. It took a little longer than she would have liked, but eventually the drawer popped open.

At first it looked like it was nothing, just a bunch of boring papers. She began to pull those out, carefully stacking them on the floor next to her so that she would hopefully be able to put them back in place just how they had been before.

"What is this?" She whispered to herself as she pulled a gaudy metal pendant out of the drawer. What the hell reason could President Monroe have for keeping an ugly necklace locked in his desk?

She noticed a paper tucked to the side with a drawing of the thing on it and carefully pulled it out and looked it over. According to this, the pendant was supposed to turn the electricity on in an area for a limited amount of time if you pressed the button. She couldn't test it out though, lest it actually work and tip people off that she had found it.

Charlie didn't know how much time she had left and if this thing was real, which Monroe seemed to believe it was, then she needed to make sure he wouldn't find out that she had it. So with one last glance at the page, she stuck it back into the drawer and placed the other papers over top and slid the drawer shut.

Charlie stopped and considered where she was going to hide this clunky necklace on her scantily clad person, then settled on sticking it in the bottom of the cup of her bra. She repositioned her dress and hair and hoped that it wasn't visible to anyone else that there was something off about her chest.

Just as she rose to her feet, she heard the sound of footsteps coming from the hallway outside the door. She whipped around the desk and sat back down in the chair, only to realize that she still had the letter opener in her hand at the exact same moment that she heard the door open behind her. Oh no.

She slid the knife under the hem of her dress and shifted so that her arm laid over her lap in what she hoped was a casual pose and not one that made it obvious she was trying to conceal the handle of a weapon with her hand. Perfect. There was nothing suspicious about being found with a letter opener up your dress.

Just breathe, Charlie. Maybe he won't notice.

Yeah, like you're going to walk out with the pendant you stole out of his locked drawer and the letter opener you stole off of his desk both hidden on your barely covered person. That seems likely. She needed to come up with a new plan and now.

Monroe walked into the room, painfully slowly, and paused between her and his desk, leaning back against it as he crossed his arms over his chest and shifted a little to get comfortable. This position allowed him to hover over her, uncomfortably close, with the fabric of his pants just barely brushing against her knees. It was intimidating, but at least from this angle he wasn't likely to notice a lump on the bottom of her chest.

"What do you want?" He grunted out. "Do you know something about where Connor is? You better not be wasting my time."

Charlie's thumb ran along the handle of the letter opener as she debated her options.

Monroe leaned forward as he glared down at her. "Well?"

Charlie shifted a little forwards in her seat. "I just know he didn't come back last night." She locked eyes with him as she tried to slowly slip her weapon out from beneath the hem of her dress. "And he said he would." She shifted a little more, moving one of her legs just a hint in front of the other.

"I already know he's missing," Monroe grunted out. "I don't need you to tell me tha-"

His sentence fell short as she took the opportunity to spring up and stab him in the chest with the letter opener. Or at least, that was what she was going for, but the dagger didn't get quite as deep as she had been hoping it would before he managed to shove her off. Still, she felt a small sense of satisfaction that she had succeeded at wounding him, even as he called his guards into the room.

* * *

Monroe had thought she looked familiar before. One of the guards had referred to her as Charlie, but he'd figured that probably wasn't her real name. Prostitutes didn't tend to give out their real names often, but then again, Charlie wasn't exactly Candy or Jasmine. Something about those eyes had told him he'd seen her before though, and now with that defiant glare she gave him as the guards grabbed her by the arms it clicked and he realized why she looked so damn familiar. That look was all Rachel Matheson and he knew that Miles had joined the rebels, just like he knew that Rachel had a daughter about that age. He'd heard all about it before the blackout, back when they had all been friends.

"Hold on a second," he told the guards that had been dragging her out of the room.

They stopped and she huffed up at him, despite the fact that she clearly was not getting out of this. She was outmanned and out of her league, but he could almost admire her resilience.

"I know who you are," he told her as he took a step closer. He paused for a moment, letting the tension build and savouring the look of panic in her eyes. "You're Charlotte Matheson."

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! A huge thanks goes out to TheLateNightWriter93 for being amazing and reviewing last chapter! :)**


	12. Chapter 12

"I can't believe we're considering this," Miles muttered out.

"I know, but he has a good point," Nora responded. "It's less risky to give Monroe him than to give him you. Plus he can get Charlie out."

Miles had gone to Nora because he trusted her judgement over everyone else's in this place. She was the one he went to when he wasn't sure he was thinking straight. Well, her or Charlie.

"But will he?" Miles argued. "And what makes you so convinced he won't come back after us?"

"Because why would I want my dad to find you?" Connor piped up loudly, mildly annoyed that they were talking about this in front of him like he wasn't there, but glad that he wasn't completely cut out of the conversation. "He already talks about you too much. Why would I want Miles Matheson swooping back in and being given everything that is supposed to be mine? I'll get Charlie out, you'll stay away from my dad, and that'll be it."

Miles took a deep breath, then looked to Nora for her assessment. He didn't know whether to trust Connor or not, but he did trust her. Plus, in Charlie's absence, she was the one who knew the most about what had been going on with Connor. There would be know way for her to know anything for sure now that Connor knew Charlie wasn't really the perfect fantasy she had been pretending to be, but Nora's guess had to be better than Miles' would be.

Nora glanced between the men and hesitated for a moment before she told Miles, "From what I've heard, I don't think he'd let Charlie rot there. And she said he was bitter about not getting to do enough in the militia. What he's saying makes sense."

* * *

Connor pretended he hadn't heard that bitter comment. These people had no idea what it was like being promised everything and given nothing, but he bit his tongue. He didn't need to argue right now, he needed to get them to trust him. This may be his only chance to get out of this place.

"Let me go back and what's the worst case scenario?" He questioned. "I don't come back and then you're just as screwed as you would have been before? Then you can just as easily turn yourself in afterwards and move your base somewhere else. The militia's going to be looking for it either way."

Miles still didn't look impressed as he warned, "Alright. But you better not fuck this up."

* * *

Charlie was sitting in the cell she had been dragged off to as she thought to herself that this could not get much worse. She was already bound to be executed for trying to assassinate the president and she was sure her connection to Miles, which he had somehow figured out on his own, was only going to ensure that she'd be tortured and questioned thoroughly beforehand. On top of that, she still had this damn pendant stuffed in her bra, digging into her breast, and it was only a matter of time until Monroe would realize that she had broken into his desk drawer and taken it.

She would be lucky if they just executed her and put her out of her misery. Giving answers wasn't an option. Nothing good could come of him finding the rebels and Miles. It wasn't just her in trouble. She was putting Miles, who had told her not to come back here, at risk too. Why hadn't she listened to him?

* * *

When Connor returned home, he ignored the stares of the guards and headed straight for his father's office. He didn't bother to knock before he let himself in, clearly interrupting a heated conversation between Captain Baker and his father. Jeremy cut himself off mid-word as both men turned to look at Connor in surprise.

Monroe let out a sigh of relief as if he had been holding his breath since his son went missing. "Where were you?" He questioned. "And what happened to your face?"

"Rebels found me," Connor responded as he stepped further into the room. "I don't know where they took me. They came up behind me and hit me in the back of the head. By the time I woke up, they already had me locked in a cell."

"How did you manage to get away?" Jeremy asked slowly, his eyes narrowing slightly.

Connor glared over at him. Apparently his father's raging paranoia was spreading.

"I didn't," he responded bluntly. "They got rid of me when they realized I wasn't going to tell them anything. Must have realized it wasn't going to end well for them if they killed me or kept me. They blindfolded me and dropped me off at the same place they took me from." He forced his tone to turn light as he enquired, "So, did I miss anything exciting while I was gone?"

"Well, that prostitute you had coming over tried to kill me this morning," his father responded, his voice anything but light. "Turns out she's a Matheson."

Oh. That would explain why Miles had been concerned enough about her that he'd been willing to turn himself in. And why he'd bossed her around so much.

At least Connor didn't have to pretend to be surprised by the news.

"Things are looking up," his father continued. "You're back and now we've got a Matheson. Either she'll lead us to the rebel base and Miles, or else he'll show up to rescue her before we can make her talk. Either way, it's only a matter of time."

Of course. Once again, Miles was clearly his father's main priority.

"Great." Connor forced himself to look impressed, then made an excuse to leave the room as he announced, "I'm gonna go get cleaned up."

After Connor left his father's office, he went to change his clothes and replaced the gun that had been taken off of him by the rebels. Then, he had headed straight for the prison cells in search of Charlie.

There was one guard outside the prison section and one within, but Connor knew a thing or two about getting around guards. After all, he'd had to learn when he'd discovered that if his father got his way, he wouldn't be allowed near anything even remotely important.

The guard outside the door was hesitant, but Connor managed to talk his way in fairly easily. Threatening to tell his father about the guard getting in his way did the trick, although the man still looked a little unsure. Connor was known to find a way into places he wasn't supposed to enter, but the guard probably didn't anticipate why he was sneaking in there.

Connor knew the second guard wasn't going to be so easy, especially considering what he was there to do.

* * *

Charlie's head jerked up when she heard the echo of approaching footsteps. Someone was here to see her. Apparently Monroe wasn't planning on wasting any time. What if he had found out the pendant was missing?

She was surprised, but relieved, when it was Connor who entered the room. How the hell had he gotten out?

The guard outside her cell turned to see who was there. His hand was on his gun, but it remained in its holster when he saw that it was Monroe's son.

"What are you doing in here?" The guard questioned.

"She tricked me into trusting her and then tried to kill my father," he responded. His tone was harsh and his jaw was clenched as he glared at Charlie over the guard's shoulder. Apparently he was still angry at her, not that she could really blame him. "I have some questions for her."

That sounded ominous.

He glanced over at the guard disinterestedly on his way by, then hesitated just outside the cell. Charlie's heart was pounding in her chest.

* * *

Connor didn't say anything as he stared Charlie down, but she wasn't the one he was concerned with at the moment. Instead, he was focused on the guard behind him. When he heard footsteps behind him receding just a little, he decided this was as good of an opportunity as he was likely to get.

With his eyes still locked on Charlie's, he slowly moved his hand to his gun and pulled it from his holster. He broke eye contact as he whipped around and hit the guard hard in the back of the head. The man fell to the ground in a heap, then Connor crouched down at his side.

* * *

"Why did you do that?" Charlie asked as she stared at Connor's back.

He turned around and genuinely smiled at her for the first time since he had been taken by the rebels as he held up a ring of keys. There was a smugness to his tone as he told her, "Because he has these."

"You're helping me?" She questioned in a surprised tone. It didn't make any sense to her after everything he had found out about her, and especially after she had tried to kill his father, but she was grateful for any help she could get.

"I guess I am."

* * *

Connor still didn't trust her, but he did care about her enough that he wasn't going to sit around and let her get tortured and executed. This might come back to bite him in the ass, but he needed to help her.

He stepped forward and unlocked the door to her cell.

* * *

Charlie hesitated for a moment, still not entirely sure this wasn't a trick, then decided that she didn't have time to waste on questioning whether or not this was a trap. Either way, it was her best bet.

She stepped out of the cell, then crouched down to grab the gun off of the guard. When she moved to drag him back into the cell, Connor caught on and grabbed the man's legs.

"Why are you helping me?" She asked, although she wasn't sure making him question it was the wisest decision.

"My options are pretty limited," he told her, but didn't explain any further. "There's another guard at the door. I'm guessing getting past him on the way out isn't going to be quite as easy as getting in was."

"Knocking him out should do the trick," Charlie pointed out. It was clear that he was capable of it and, even if he wasn't, she was more than willing to do it.

"Yeah, but it won't take long before someone notices he's gone," Connor responded. "Which means you're going to have to haul ass."

* * *

Connor knocked the guard at the door out just as he had done to the last one, then they stepped out into the hallway.

Charlie went to turn left, but he grabbed her arm to stop her. If she went that way, she was bound to get caught by one of the guards. He knew a thing or two about getting in and out undetected and he had a better plan.

"This way," he told her as his hand slid down to her wrist. When she hesitated he added, "You do want to get out. Don't you?"

She followed him then and he led her through a doorway near the end of the hallway.

"No one else ever comes in here," he pointed out. He had known that odds of them running into someone in here were next to nothing. The room had been covered in dust when he had arrived and hadn't been cleaned since. He walked across the room, then told her, "Which means no one else has figured out that the bars on this window aren't really attached anymore."

He opened the window and pushed the cage of bars out of the way, then turned back around to face her.

* * *

She didn't know why he had helped her, but she was thankful that he had, even if his help made her feel even guiltier about how they both knew she had used him.

Charlie hesitated in front of the window for a moment, then asked, "Do you still not want me touching you?"

He paused, then after a moment's consideration told her, "I'll allow it."

She stepped forward and brought a hand to his cheek as she pulled him in for a kiss. It wasn't a performance like her usual lusty kiss, but a thank you for getting her out of there.

When she pulled back, she took one last look, trying to memorize the details of his face. Then she turned and climbed out the window.

She had barely stood up on the other side when Connor began to climb out after her.

"You're coming with me?" She asked, unable to hide her shock.

* * *

He made it through the window and turned to face her, then asked, "What? Do you think I'm going to stick around after this? My dad's bound to know I helped you and I don't plan on being here for the lecture when he finds out." Besides, he'd be lucky if he was trusted with anything after this.

She blinked over at him, clearly startled by the information. After a dragged out silence, she finally told him, "You can't come back to the rebel base with me."

"I know."

That much was obvious. Connor had thought about running away with Charlie before, but that had just been fleeting daydreams. He'd never thought he would end up in a situation where it would be his best option.

"But you don't have to go back there either," he pointed out.

* * *

Charlie knew that odds of Miles reacting well to her bringing Connor back were bad, especially since her uncle hadn't been willing to keep Connor alive last time. Besides, even if the people close to her were alright with having the president's son there, the other rebels wouldn't just sit back and let him stroll around their base freely.

"Actually, I do," Charlie argued. Then she stopped to think about it for a moment.

Of course she couldn't just disappear on the people she cared about without a trace or so much as a goodbye. But she'd stolen from Monroe and tried to assassinate him. He was going to come looking for her and she couldn't afford to let him get the pendant back if it really did what the paper had said it did. Maybe it was best for her to leave, at least for a little while.

Her tone softened slightly as she added, "At the very least, I need to get some real clothes and tell people I'm still alive."

The corner of his lips twitched upwards as he commented, "I know. You're sick of those heels and could use some real shoes. Right?"

She was glad to have a little of the tension broken as she let out a quiet laugh.

All of that charm she had grown used to returned his tone as he asked her, "So, what do you say? Want to run away with me?"

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! Another giant thanks goes out to TheLateNightWriter93 for reviewing last chapter and helping keep me motivated. :)**


	13. Chapter 13

Charlie stopped just before the clearing outside the rebel base and turned towards Connor.

"You should wait here," she told him. As almost an afterthought, she teased, "And try not to get captured this time."

"Right," he responded as he leaned back against the trunk of a thick tree. "Because I can't wait to go back after the hospitality last time."

"Hey, your place wasn't that great either," Charlie pointed out. She didn't mean only during her last visit.

* * *

Charlie entered the rebel base through a different entrance than usual. It was the one she had been using to sneak back into the building ever since she had grown sick of being cooped up and had first started her extracurricular outings.

The rusted metal door was at the back of the building, where plants had overgrown everything. The entrance was hidden between a tall tree, with branches that threatened to grow through the windows at any moment, and a faded old dumpster. The hallway it opened into was one down from Charlie's bedroom, so she should be able to get in and out undetected.

It wasn't that she didn't want to see her loved ones. She really did, but she knew that they were not likely to agree with her decision and she was afraid she could be talked out of it. She didn't want to put a target on their backs and she needed to keep what she had found a secret if she wanted to protect it.

Charlie pulled the heavy door open and stepped inside, stopping to remove her heels. She padded down the hallway as quietly as she could, shoes in hand, and carefully peeked around the corner.

Thankfully, there was no sign of anyone, so she headed straight for the third door on the left and softly closed the door behind her.

The first thing she did was grab a piece of paper to write a note. It took her a few minutes to find the right words, but she still hadn't heard any noises nearby when she had finished.

Next, she grabbed her clothes and threw them on the bed. She was relieved to get the pendant away from her chest as she pulled it out of her bra. She wrapped it in one of her tank tops, then slipped that shirt inside another before stuffing the whole bundle into the bottom of her backpack.

After setting aside something to change into, she got to work packing what she could fit into her bag, including the gun she had taken off of the guard.

* * *

Rachel walked into the room and paused with her weight against the door frame. Her arms wrapped around herself as she pointed out, "Charlie still isn't back."

Miles frowned. If it was up to him he already would have gone to get her. Hell, if it was up to him she wouldn't have gone back there in the first place.

"Well, I don't see why we trusted Monroe's son to get her back," Danny complained. "I mean, the guy probably went back to throw her under the bus even more. For all we know, he's the reason she got caught."

"I don't think he'd do that," Nora disagreed. "From what I heard, he was pretty wrapped around her finger. If we're lucky, he's telling the truth and went back there to protect her."

Danny was sick of hearing about Charlie and Connor. "Or he went back to blow her cover because he's bitter that Charlie was just pretending to like him."

"It doesn't matter," Miles grunted out. "I don't care why he went back. We gave him enough time to get her back and he didn't. I'm turning myself in before anything worse happens to her."

* * *

Charlie had been gone for what felt like an eternity and Connor was starting to wonder whether she was really coming back or not. Was this all just a trick? Was she going to leave him out in the woods by himself? Or, worse, was she going to send some rebels back out to take him captive again? He would be a real idiot if he let himself believe that at least part of what they had was real, only to end up saving her from the same fate he ended up throwing himself right back into.

He was finally dragged out of his thoughts and stopped dwelling on everything that could go wrong as Charlie reemerged from the treeline she had disappeared behind earlier. This time, she was dressed in a comfortable looking pair of dark jeans that clung to her form, knee-high leather boots, a faded grey tank top, and a light brown leather jacket over top. A backpack and quiver of arrows were strapped to her back and she held a bow at her side. It was by far the most clothed he had seen her.

"So this is how you usually dress," he commented.

"Sorry," she told him as a smile played at her eyes. "I know you like the skimpy dresses, but they're not exactly practical for life on the run."

"No," he told her, then cut himself off. A smile crossed his lips as he told her, "I mean, yes, I am a definite fan of the skimpy dresses. But this is good too."

* * *

Nora fell back on her bed and let out a sigh. She needed a little alone time to process the fact that Miles had gone back to Monroe and the militia.

How had they gotten back to this? She liked who Miles was now, grumpiness and all, a lot more than she had liked who he was around Monroe. She knew that Miles felt the same and hated voluntarily going back to Monroe and the person he used to be. She should have pushed harder to take the mission instead of Charlie. Tattoo be damned.

She could have gone instead. If Connor had asked, she could have said the tattoo was old. From before the rebels. They wouldn't be in this mess then.

As she turned her head to look out the window, something caught her eye. The corner of a piece of paper was just barely peeking out of the pocket of her jacket that was draped over the back of a chair.

Curiosity got the best of her, so she rose to her feet and pulled the paper out. She unfolded it and recognized Charlie's writing. Oh no.

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! Another great big thanks goes out to TheLateNightWriter93 and Bella for reviewing last chapter! :)**


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